Re: HYB: Rebloom Inheritance

Thanks to everybody for all the interesting thoughts, observations.

Betty sent me a note (I don't think she posted it?):
<The World of Irises this morning and found this line on the bottom of 142 and extending onto the top of 143.
"The reblooming trait, however, is firmly established in the lines of current hybridizers, with many reporting rebloom from 50 to 80 % of progeny from crosses of two reblooming parents.">
Which makes me wonder what about the others (not the "many") and why such a wide range.
If rebloom is controlled by a large number of genes, with different suites of genes regulating a whole suite of traits: growth rate, response to daylength, pH, water availability, temperature... (what else ?), that would help explain a lot.
Including the observation that there is more than one set of genes that control rebloom and that a plant has to get matching sets from its parents.
So now all we need are a few plants that are homozygous for <all> those genes. And to be able to recognize when we have them! ;-)
Kelly, when you've got time, I'd love to hear more of your thoughts on this.
While working on the checklist, we found quite a few Schreiner irises reported to rebloom various places. Off the top of my head - AMITY ESTATE, SEAKIST, CELEBRATION SONG... but it's not a long list. Gus had some success <g>
But this may explain why I <think> I get better seedlings from things like HoM & IMM when crossed with Schreiner introductions than from some other material - fewer recessive dwarf rebloom genes in the pool. 

<it's been told that Gus  Schreiner made
search and destroy trips through the seedling beds in off  seasons.
Reportedly, he carried a shovel and would dig anything blooming off season, thus 
purging rebloom from their lines.

Not totally successful >
I always figured epigenetics might explain the phenomenon so many folks report of it taking a year or more for some cultivars to 'settle in', or 'adapt' to a different climate. And from what I read (and posted something a few years ago?), that could certainly apply to plant resistance to pests and disease. Known to be reversible in some kinds of plants for some traits, not in others.
It doesn't make as much sense for rebloom, because response to drought seems to be so reversible, at least in the rebloomers I've grown. They may not rebloom for years, then suddenly, when conditions are more favorable here, they do. And it also doesn't seem to make sense that an adaptation to drought would be inherited, because several of us (me, Betty, the Spoons, Griff, others) see rebloom in offspring of cultivars that do not rebloom for us even tho they may reliably rebloom in 'better' climates. 
--
Linda Mann east Tennessee USA zone 7/8
East Tennessee Iris Society <http://www.DiscoverET.org/etis>
Region 7, Kentucky-Tennessee <http://www.aisregion7.org>
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